Tag: Illustration

Greetings Bwoshsucklers and welcome to a new plog bost (I think I’d better quit with the spoonerisms for everyone’s sake) I’m calling you swashbucklers and it’s a blog post. I think we are on the same page now.

Basically, I need somewhere to dump illustration work from past projects for the purpose of entering the V&A Illustration competition. It’s completely free so any of you fellow illustrators out there, why not give it a go?

I only came to know about this competition when a lovely lady from far off lands who happened to be adorned with the same surname as me made contact enquiring whether we might be related. I have no idea but she is a new member of the crew. Argghh, a new shipmate! I don’t think that we would have to search that far back to find that we are related as the name Catling comes from Catlin and so with the G being a later addition we are talking more recent history. How recent I don’t know but I really must look into this. Anyway, my lovely long-lost relative is being very supportive and informed me of the competition. So I immediately thought I could submit this…

…or this or…

…this or even…

…this, but no. The entries have to have been published in 2018. Darn, if only I had known sooner. So, here come the 2018 published illustrations.

The cover to How Bear Lost his Tail in it’s raw condition.How Bear Lost his Tail in it’s published condition.How Bear Lost his Tail, internal illustration A Pirate Christmas in it’s raw condition. A Pirate Christmas as published

There are more but I’ll leave it at that. Happy sailing and may your boots fill with treasure.

Living and working as a pirate illustrator, I can understand that I may seem intimidating and so perhaps you wouldn’t think me to be the first choice for a young children’s book. The opposite is true. The harsh beardy exterior, the sharp cutlasses, the bangy pistols are… well… well frankly they are frightening. So…

Onto other things

In 2016 I had the joy and privilege to illustrate a book written by Lucy Owen, a presenter for BBC Wales and a true piratey shipmate. Lucy had written a simple and engaging text that deals with some of the conflicting emotions and fears that most children experience. This kind of insight into the issues of childhood may be the memories of Lucy’s own childhood or the understanding that she has gained from the children that she knows, but either is truly admirable. As a pirate my range of emotions are limited to ‘Wow, that treasure be shiny’ and ‘Ow, you goatbeard! Your cutlass hurts’.
But this project is not just a book but a cause. The royalties from the sales of Boo-a-bog in the park published by Gomer go to the Noahs Ark Children’s Charity.

When a text doesn’t attempt to dominate the pages of a book, plentiful space is left for an illustrator to shout, sooth, explode and reassure in character, shape and colour. I had great fun doing exactly that and I hope that people will enjoy reading Boo-a-bog in the park as much. If you come from foreign parts and prefer to read Boo-a-bog in Welsh or you simply would rather not understand the book allowing it to remain a complete mystery then that option is available too. If you do prefer the latter option, you are obviously insane and qualified to join my crew.

Once the book was complete and had been duplicated by a large number of midget pirate illustrators, Gomer asked if I would attend the Boo-a-bog in the park book launch which would take place at the Noah’s Ark children’s hospital in Cardiff. My pirate ship was in dry dock for caulking so another mode of transport would be needed. I decided on the Landlubbers railway system. Apparently, from the south coast of England a train will travel directly to Cardiff, no changes. What happened to London? I’m not complaining but I thought that all trains went through London. If I so much as nipped to the local Coop for some teabags, then I’m sure that London would be involved somewhere. Did London leave when it heard about Brexit? Is it on the continent pretending to be the capitol of Belgium? Who knows.

The book launch was a fantastic event and I was able to meet all involved with this great project. Lucy, her husband Rhodri and son Gabriel were all wonderful as was everyone else that I met there who came to support the launch. Noahs Ark Children’s hospital was an outstanding achievement of fundraising by the charity and I had the delight of meeting some of those that are benefiting as well as those amazing people that work at the hospital. The event was a great success and fun was had by all with much book signing, TV interviews etc etc.